On May 12, 2020, China JSTN Nanotechnology released its 2019 financial report. During the reporting period, operating income was 386 million yuan, an increase of 18% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company was 110 million yuan, an increase of 63% .
JSTN is mainly engaged in R & D, production and sales of nano-scale carbon materials related products. Its products include "carbon nanotube powder", "carbon nanotube conductive paste", "graphene composite conductive paste", "carbon nanotube conductive master batch" and so on.
In recent years, Tiannai Technology has grown rapidly: from 2016 to 2019, its revenue increased from 130 million yuan to 386 million yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 43.7%.
So, what is the reason behind the rapid growth of business scale?
New conductive agent wins in the future
From the perspective of product revenue structure, carbon nanotube conductive paste is the main revenue source of JSTN. In 2019, its carbon nanotube conductive paste revenue was 370 million yuan, an increase of 14% year-on-year, accounting for its main business revenue. 99%.
Carbon nanotube conductive paste is a conductive paste mixed with carbon nanotubes and other raw materials, and is used as a new conductive agent in the field of lithium batteries to improve the energy density of lithium batteries and improve the cycle life of lithium batteries.
At present, JSTN has established stable cooperative relations with domestic first-class lithium battery manufacturers such as BYD, ATL (New Energy Technology), CATL (Ningde Times), Tianjin Lishen, Funeng Technology, and Yiwei Lithium Energy.
However, before the emergence of new conductive agents such as carbon nanotubes, overseas companies have been controlling the market voice of traditional conductive agents. Chinese lithium battery companies have long been in a state of import dependence on lithium battery conductive agents. At present, the mainstream traditional conductive agents on the market mainly come from companies such as Cabot in the United States, TIMCAL in Switzerland, Lion in Japan, Electrochemical in Japan and Showa Denko in Japan.
However, thanks to the excellent conductivity of carbon nanotubes, carbon nanotube conductive agents are gradually replacing traditional conductive agents, especially in the field of power lithium batteries.
New energy vehicle power lithium batteries and 3C electronic lithium batteries are currently the main business areas of JSTN. Among them, the new energy power lithium battery field contributed 74% of the main business revenue. During the reporting period, JSTN revenue in the field of new energy vehicle power lithium batteries was 274 million yuan, an increase of 12.5% year-on-year.
JSTN's achievements today are mainly due to the rapid development of the downstream new energy vehicle industry. Globally, new energy vehicles have become the focus of development in countries around the world. Norway, Finland, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and other countries have announced a total ban on the sale of fuel vehicles from 2025 to 2040. China is also actively promoting the development of the new energy vehicle industry, and many domestic car companies have set a timetable to stop selling fuel cars.
It is estimated that by 2023, the global production of new energy vehicles will reach 8.875 million units, with a compound annual growth rate of 35.8% in the next five years. As the "heart" of new energy vehicles, power lithium batteries are essential.
JSTN has also succeeded in catching up with the "electrification" trend of automobiles. From 2016 to 2019, the revenue of the new energy vehicle power lithium battery field increased from 75.42 million yuan to 274 million yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 53.7%.
Not only that, the permeability of the carbon nanotube conductive agent continues to deepen. According to high-tech production and research data, the domestic market share of carbon nanotube conductive agent has reached 31.8% in 2018. It is expected that the penetration rate of carbon nanotube conductive paste in the field of power lithium batteries will reach 82% by 2023, compared with 2018 Increase by 50.4%.
By then, the demand for carbon nanotube conductive paste for power lithium batteries in China will exceed 100,000 tons, and the compound annual growth rate will reach 37.2% in the next five years.
Judging from the output of JSTN close to 10,000 tons in 2019, and the market share of more than 30%. JSTN still has huge room for improvement.
In addition to new energy power batteries, 3C electronic lithium batteries have also become the main driving force for JSTN's performance growth. During the reporting period, revenue from the 3C electronic lithium battery field was 94.48 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.6%.
Silicon-based negative electrode has more space
Positive and negative electrodes are an important part of lithium batteries. They largely determine the "charge capacity" of lithium batteries.
However, with the increasing demand for lithium batteries in the downstream market, the current mainstream positive and negative electrode materials have reached physical limits, and upstream lithium battery material suppliers have begun to lay out a new generation of positive and negative electrode materials in advance.
Graphite anode material is the current mainstream anode material. Thanks to its mature technology, lower cost and good performance, graphite anode occupies 90% of the anode material market. However, under the urgent demand for new energy vehicles to pursue high cruising range, the "silicon-based negative electrode" with higher specific capacity has become one of the main directions of current technological development.
The so-called specific capacity is an important performance index of the electrode, which largely determines the energy density of the lithium battery. Popular understanding of "energy density" is how much water a "water cup" can hold, and it also determines the product's battery life or mileage. Compared with graphite-based anodes, the specific capacity of silicon-based materials is ten times that of graphite materials.
Tesla, the global leader in new energy vehicles, has used silicon-carbon anode materials in its Model 3 power battery.
In keeping with the industry's advanced level, JSTN is actively developing carbon nanotube conductive paste suitable for silicon-based negative electrodes, and jointly developed the application of carbon nanotube conductive paste in silicon-based negative electrodes with well-known Japanese and Korean power lithium battery companies In the future, high-volume supply will be realized. According to the JSTN annual report, the application of carbon nanotubes in silicon-based anodes has entered the stage of sample delivery.
JSTN is already the global leader in carbon nanotubes, but the replacement of traditional conductive agents by carbon nanotubes has just begun. Next, with the further replacement of traditional conductive agents by carbon nanotubes, JSTN is expected in the future.